A Sad Obituary

[tonysam]

I saw this on another board, but I think this really says it all about today's unconscionable decision by the USSC:

It is with deep sadness that I note the passing, on the morning of January 21, 2010, of American democracy. It died in Washington, D.C., in the chambers of the United States Supreme Court, after a long and painful illness, as five of the nine justices finally pulled the plug.

...

But, almost unnoticed, a cancer had begun to grow in its late 200s, as we ingested some bad Supreme Court appointees, named not for their wise jurisprudence but because they towed a particular ideological line. This cancer, or "Scalioma," could not have harmed us if, just six months before our 200th birthday, we had not first been weakened by a condition called Buckley v. Valeo-itis, which officially defined corporations, with their immortality and unlimited resources, as individuals who normally don't share those advantages, and miraculously transformed money into speech. Scalioma has taken over now, and one of this disease's agents of metastasis, the Kennedy microbe, today provided the final symptom that has led to the death of the once mighty Democracy six months before what would have been its 234th birthday.

See, the Supreme Court today handed down their decision in the "Citizens United v. FEC" case today, a little noticed event but one that has absolutely enormous consequences for democracy and American liberty, possibly greater than any event throughout our entire history. Today's 5-4 decision, with the usual breakout (Scalia, Thomas, Alito, Roberts and Kennedy on one side, Breyer, Ginzburg, Sotomayor and Stevens, who wrote a 90-page dissent, on the other), holds that corporate expenditures on political campaigns cannot be limited by law because to do so violates corporate "freedom of speech."

So now, the FULL resources of Exxon-Mobil, of Verizon, of Eli Lilly, of The Hartford, etc., etc., etc., can be brought to bear in purchasing media time for political advocacy during the period leading up to our elections. The content of the material they broadcast is unlimited as is the scope of their investment -- they can lie (as they so frequently do) in ways rendered particularly persuasive by the cleverness of the professionals they can hire to do it. Their ability to devote vast sums of cash to the effort will drive prices for media time into the stratosphere, rendering it unaffordable for lesser entities like those that espouse a more egalitarian or societally responsible view. The notion that this can somehow be balanced off by a similar lifting of regulations on union political spending is like equating a child's popgun with a nuclear bomb.

Did you appreciate the work of the Swift Boaters? Now you will see it times a hundred or more. Truth will be lost. Democracy is lost.

...

link

One of the WORST decisions the high court EVER rendered. We are truly fucked.

[Demeter]

1. USA RIP

[tonysam]

3. This country is done for.

Bush v. Gore was the first major assault on democracy (although Buckley v. Valeo set the stage years earlier), but it's a goner now.

[AndyA]

2. And we know that at least two of the justices are liars.

They promised Congress they would not legislate from the bench.

I don't think anyone would say what happened this morning wasn't legislating from the bench.

Thanks, Roberts and Alito. You are both liars and UNFIT for your positions.

[CrispyQ]

4. USA Inc.

Wish I could rec this thread multiple times.

k&r

[USA_1]

5. If Dems hadn't given up the White House in 2000

... this would not have happened. Some day the Democratic party is going to have to learn to run intelligent campaigns as so many people have pointed out on this and other forums.

Until then please do not blame Republicans. They are only taking advantage of every opportunity given to them by the Dems.

[tom_paine]

6. Don't kid yourself - it died long ago. The corpse is just getting cold.

Did it die on 12/12/2000?

11/23/1963?

Maybe the date Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 that paved the way for massive corruption and unchecked power.

Maybe the date in 1935 when FDR decided to let Prescott Bush and his co-treasonists off scot-free and bury the information so deep.

Even at our height, apparently, it was dying. Even at our height of health and vigor, we were already dying but just didn't know it.

That is a question for future historians.

It didn't die today, that's for certain. At most it was just a flogging of a corpse which even now is only just beginning to reek.

[Demeter]

7. The CIA would be a good starting place

[Stuckinthebush]

9. My thoughts exactly

The country is a shell of what it should be.

[jotsy]

10. All too true, you know your history well.

One can only hope the spirit of what we thought we were can morph us into something of a phoenix.

A more genuine species can flourish without these rabid dogs of economic war who turn blood to oil.

I know it's a dream, but it's a good one.

I know only the surface history stuff, would love an education on the details some time if you're of a mind to teach. I have a thirteen year old who I fear will never be taught from a truthful position in the public education system.

Your comment is the kind that makes me want a rec button for responses.

[tom_paine]

14. Thank you for the kind words.

Some topics to look into:

General Smedley Butler and the plot against FDR

A link to get you started with a good overview:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml

Read Vance Packard's "The Hidden Persuaders", which is a primer of modern advertising and PR power, demonstrating not just it's corrupt roots but which point a neon arrow to the "TV nation" we are today and why the American Subject Populace are no threat to our Aristocratic Masters but ARE very capable of a "1933 German revolution" in FAVOR of them.(Google "Learned Helplessness" and other aspects of behavioral psychology now long in use in our Empire)

Read Sebastian Haffner's "Defying Hitler" to understand just HOEW similar the modern American psychology is to those Germans of 1933.

Read up on the criminal doings of the Bush Family, and how they mysteriously are near the center of pretty much every treasonous act against our nation for at least 70 years.

Kennedy Assassination 1963
The Bush Family and it's deep friendship with Nazis
1980's October Surprise (why did the Iran Contra hearings refuse to look into anything before 1985, I wonder)

and much much more...

But there's a start for you.

Thanks again for your kind words.

[tonysam]

13. This is ridiculous.

Bush v. Gore was the beginning of the end, because a high court decided to render a decision which blantantly subverted the will of the people.

[Gman2]

8. Although it IS tyranny, it also includes unions. And that is why they are so anti union.

[tonysam]

11. Unions have NO power in this country anymore, so the decision

doesn't mean shit for "our" side. This is bribery, pure and simple.

[Gman2]

15. I will fight to the @#%#@^#%& this injustice.

[SaveOurDemocracy]

12. There are no words. Elections will be TOTAL shams now.

May as well allow the Corporations to (openly) appoint our 'elected' officials. Yeah, like they don't already. :cry:

When they don't even have to hide it we are truly and completely fucked.